Infantilized Aesthetics

[Elamys]

So what I'm getting from your post is that you feel like items that glow, really special mounts, etc are too normal to truly be special. You also feel that the new mounts we have gotten are too cartoonish.

First of all, on the mount subject, I'm not sure I understand this complaint. Off the top of my head, the most recent mounts we have gotten are the manta ray from the kojin, the marid from the ananta, the mikoshi from the namazu, the dodo from heaven on high, rathalos, the pink t-rex from eureka, I may have missed some. Oh, and the primal wolves. of those, only the dodo and t-rex truly seem silly. the rays and marid are both very important to the cultures of the tribe they come from. a mikoshi is an actual thing; it's more commonly known as a palanquin. and rathalos is...rathalos.

as for the weapons, i haven't found any of them to be particularly egregious in the cartoonish department. perhaps to you it is, but different aesthetics appeal to different people. a glowing weapon to me is an enchanted, magical weapon. i play casters. why wouldn't the (arguably most) powerful caster in eorzea have an enchanted weapon? the base designs of most recent weapons and armors, while perhaps...subjective in their visual appeal, don't strike me as "cartoonish" or "exaggerated." also, we're talking about square enix, a company that has "belts, inc" as a subsidiary. se has ALWAYS been known for kind of outlandish armor designs.

when it comes to mounts the most special mounts are coming from the most special achievements. kirin even had a story behind it, a legitimate mythology. of course, it is easy to obtain now, but storywise, that was an absolutely legendary feat, to defeat all the primals and gain control of the horses they had created/tamed. why wouldn't they deserve a legendary mount in return? but it would be silly to lock that mount to just one or even a few players, so it ends up being common.

in the end, it's unfortunate that you feel the recent trend of armor and mount design is going against what you find an immersive or cohesive story, but i don't really find this to be the case. you are welcome to, yourself, use gear and mounts that you feel are more fitting, but different people have different goals in the game. i am entertained by flying around on my obese moogle while accompanied by two harp playing moogles. it brought a huge smile to my face the first time i saw it. i don't want this game to be serious all the time.